If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,
And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:
Conditional: ‘If’
– Used throughout the poem
- implies that you will be a man if you follow
Verb phrase: ‘keep
your head’
– Advice 1: stay calm under pressure
Juxtaposition of verbs:
‘keep’ vs ‘losing’ and
‘blaming’
– Centralises the son and his actions when compared to other people’s actions.
Verbs: ‘trust’ vs ‘doubt’
– Advice 2: have self-belief
Verb / Polyptoton:
‘lied’ ‘lies’ – Advice 3: Avoid lying when others seemingly are
Verb / Polyptoton:
‘hated’ vs ‘hating’
– Advice 4: Avoid hating when others hate you.
Verb phrases: ‘don’t look too good’ vs ‘nor
talk too wise’
– Advice 5: Avoid showing off to impress others
Active versus passive voice: ‘If you can’
versus ‘being lied about’
– Focus on individual behavior despite of or in spite of other people’s behaviour
If you can dream—and not make dreams your master;
If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools:
Parallel structure: ‘verb, dash, and not
make’
– Advice 6: Have ambition but don’t let it overrun you
Advice 7: Thoughts are vital but not the
goal – doing stuff is important
Parallel structure pitches the desired trait but offers a cautionary word at the same time about excess.
Personification: ‘Triumph’ ‘Disaster’
– Advice 8: How you handle success and failures are important. They should be viewed in the same way.
Clause: ‘can bear to hear the truth you’ve
spoken / Twisted by knaves’
– Advice 9: How you deal with those who twist your truths is incredibly important.
Verbs: ‘broken’, ‘stoop’ ‘build’
– Advice 10: Possess determination – when things go wrong to go again.
If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: ‘Hold on!’
Verbs: ‘risk’, ‘start again’, ‘never breathe
a word’
– Advice 11: Reinforcing previous ideas in terms of taking risks, determination and dealing well with loss. The trait of ‘stoicism’
Verb: ‘force’, Noun: ‘heart’, ‘nerve’,
‘sinew’ Polysyndeton: ‘and…and…and’
– Advice 12: work to overcome weakness so that endurance becomes an easier thing.
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with Kings—nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And—which is more—you’ll be a Man, my son!
Juxtaposition: ‘talk with crowds’, ‘walk with Kings’
– Advice 13: The importance of relationships with others. You should be able to speak to the masses but also speak to ‘kings’ as well. Speaking to both should not have an impact on how you are.
Juxtaposition of noun phrases: ‘unforgiving minute’ ‘distance run’ –
Advice 14: to keep going, aim high and achieve more.
Clause: ‘Yours is the Earth and everything
that’s in it’ – If you can do all of the above
then the world is your potential.
Conjunction: ‘And’
– throughout the poem Kipling offers advice about what it means to be a man. If his son accomplishes all those things, then he will achieve that.
Dashes and embedded clause:
‘-which is more-’ –
Importance of becoming a man for the father
Noun: ‘Man’
–presented as a proper noun to emphasise the importance of this ideal
Noun phrase: ‘my son’ – reinforces that this poem is written from the poet to his son
Structure
One long sentence
- emphasising all the hopes and ambitions
Emjambnet
- sense of urgency
Iambic pentameter
- creates upbeat rhytm to emphasise hope
